Uninsured Rate the Lowest Since the 1990s

According to the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who polled over 27,000 people from January through March 2014, 41% of people living in the United States, which equates to 13.3%, remained uninsured during a period when people were signing up for insurance coverage from private companies or Medicaid using the Obamacare exchanges.

Since CDC’s survey in 1997, this is the lowest number and percentage of uninsured people. In addition, the number of people and percentages are down since the end of 2013, 3.8 million and 1.3% respectively.

In reality, the CDC’s survey understates The Affordable Care impact on uninsured individuals. Since March 2013 or later, over 30% of enrollees in Obamacare’s eight million private health insurance signed up, which means benefits will not go into effect until the end of the third quarter. As a result, these people did not have coverage at the time CDC completed their survey.

However, other organizations indicate an even greater decline in the number of uninsured people through polling and research. According to Gallup survey findings, the rate of uninsured dropped to 13.3% at the end of June, the lowest percentage since 2008 and for the second quarters, the percentage was down from 17.1%.

A report was published by the Harvard School of Public Health and Department of Health and Human Services in the New England Journal of Medicine in which it stated that experts had determined the number of people who gained full coverage in 2013 at 10 million. By the end of 2014, the Congressional Budget Office suggests that number will increase to 12 million.

The rate of uninsured children and adults over the age of 65 did not change much according to the CDC’s survey but for working age adults with no health insurance, the rate dropped from 20.4%. However, the largest decline was among 19 to 25 year old adults, with the rate dropping to 20.9%.

Several studies have shown the expansion of Medicaid benefits under Obamacare’s expansion states declined to 15.7% although the CDC found that the uninsured rate was virtually unchanged. CDC also discovered that 23 states, the majority located in the south, have not opened Medicaid up to more people as of yet.

Based on all the new information, the report submitted by the CDC makes it perfectly clear that a connection between income and health insurance exists. The percentage of near poor people without insurance was 26.2% and just 9% for affluent groups whereas for residents of the United States deemed “poor”, the rate of uninsured was 24.1%.

Of ethnic groups, the highest uninsured rate was Hispanics at 27.2%, a three-point drop from last year. For African Americans, the rate dropped to 15.1% from 18.9%, Asians at 13.3%, and Caucasians at 11.5%. As reported by the Census Bureau specific to insurance in the United States, the figures used are from 2013, prior to enrollment in Obamacare programs taking effect.